Final Fantasy Profile
by deathgeonous
Summary: My answer to Yashodoa's 'Female Cloud' Challenge. It's FFVII fused with VP and kinda nuts because of that. Hope you enjoy.
1. WHAT’S GOING ON HERE?

AN: This is my answer to Yashodoa's Fan Fiction Challenge 'Female Cloud'. I had told her months ago in a PM that I would answer it, and I had sadly gotten, well side tracked on my other stories. Oh well. Anyway, here it is, the first Chapter to this weird little fusion of a fan fic.

AN2: This is also a crossover/fusion. It is crossovered/fused with Valkyrie Profile. See I told you it would be a little weird.

AN3: Expect out of characterness at times, and with having things not go as they did in the game, any of them, for this is an AU plus a fusion/crossover. And it is a massive one at that. Come on, Cloud's a female in this for crying out loud, and I'm mixing Final Fantasy VII with Valkyrie Profile in this fic for God's sake! Canon need not apply here. In fact I'll say it now "Canon? What is this Canon you speak of? I know not of this Canon!"

AN4: This is now Version 2.0. For, while looking back on this, I could see that I had rushed things in this chapter as well as the next one, so I'm fixing a few mistakes I had made here and there. Also, I've rethought a lot about where I was going to go in and with this, and about some of the pairing/pairings, so this is now going to go in an entirely new direction then what I was originally going to go.

AN5: Version 3.0, mainly due to some comments made by City of Dis and my trying to get a little more in character with a few of my characters, especially Barret in chapter three.

AN6: Please disregard all other FFVII games, movies, plots and plans in this fic. Crisis Core DID NOT happen in this fic, as awesome as that game was, and Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus will not happen in this fic as well for that matter. Hell, even the core FFVII game and Valkyrie Profile are getting a swift kick in the plot line as well in this fic for that matter.

Disclaimer: I do not own the intellectual property that is Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy VII, any of its sequels and or prequels, any of their associated characters, locations, items, ideas, or anything else that may be associated with them. Those belong to each of their own respective copyright owners. I do not own the intellectual property that is Valkyrie Profile, any of its sequels and or prequels, or any of their associated characters, locations, items, ideas, or anything else that may be associated with them. Those belong to each of their own respective copyright owners. I do not own any of the intellectual properties that are other fictional persons, places or things. Those belong to each of their own respective copyright owners. I do not own any real person, place or thing. Those belong to either themselves, in the case of a person, or their real life current true owners in case of a place or object. What I do own is any and every original person, place or thing, used in here as well as the story its self. Those very few things are mine. And that's all that ever will be mine.

FINAL FANTASY PROFILE

CHAPTER ONE

WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?

Nibelheim: The Shin-Ra Mansion: about five years ago

Hojo was sitting in the basement of the so called 'Shin-Ra Mansion' and he was currently staring at the scene that the monitor was showing him with a very blank expression. He had repeatedly watched this scene over and over again, and now he had one question and one question only to ask about it, and it was the one single question that had stayed with him throughout each and every time that he had watched this scene since the very first time he had seen it.

"How?" That was all that Hojo softly whispered to himself in a very quiet and questioning tone of voice. "How did she do it?" Hojo then rhetorically asked aloud in a somewhat louder voice to no one yet again. And, just like every other time that he had asked himself this question in the past three months, Hojo had found no ready answer available for himself.

At first it had seemed absurd, laughable even, that his son and his greatest scientific achievement ever had been killed, and by an ordinary everyday female grunt, one that was not even a member of the elite SOLDIER unit, but instead by one that was just your average everyday ordinary grunt. But that was exactly what had happened, and it was really kind of insulting to him at first. For if his son and his greatest scientific experiment ever had to have been killed, it should have been by the best of the best at the least. Or so was Hojo's line of thought about that particular subject.

But then, after he had looked into her file, which he had immediately done after he had first seen her stab his son with that fallen SOLDIER's sword, and then after having seen her survive being skewered through her chest by Sephiroth's sword and then having seen her grab it and using it to launch his son down into the reactor's core, he had investigated her thoroughly, because his curiosity had been peaked, if for no other reason. And what he found had surprised him. A very rare event in his mind.

It seemed that she was that surviving First Class's pet project. He had seen something in her, and he had wanted her to make it into SOLDIER. And she was routinely denied the chance. Oh she had the skills to make it all right, but she seemed to have been denied entry solely due to her gender.

"The fools." Hojo had hissed after he had read the report on the woman, well the girl really, whom had killed his son. "She would have been a great asset to SOLDIER. Now she will become an even greater asset to me." Hojo had exclaimed while he laughed manically.

That had been three months ago, and Hojo hadn't been disappointed with his results with her yet. He was however slightly disappointed with his results with the male member of SOLDIER he had at his disposal. It seemed that his previous treatment of both Mako and Jenova cells he had had when he had been a member of SOLDIER had given him a slight case of immunity to the, treatment, to which he had devised for him.

Shaking his head to clear it from the disappointment he felt, he then turned to the unconscious woman that was so responsive to his treatment. 'If this works, she will be perfect.' Hojo thought as he fingered the box he was holding.

"Prepare specimen B for the procedure." Hojo said aloud with authority extremely evident in his voice to his subordinates.

The Shin-Ra Mansion: Nibelheim: about four and a half years ago

Hojo sighed very heavily with regret, for it seemed that his last experiment on the girl had been just a wee bit too much. 'And after she had shown such promise as well.' Hojo thought to himself. Inside of that box had been the crystallized consciousness of a very powerful being. It wasn't a Materia or anything even close to that. From what he could surmise from his studies on the object from the site where he had found it, it was a prison for the spirit of a very powerful being. And when he tried to fuse that being with his female subject, she had become comatose, and even now she had yet to awaken.

'What a waste. What an absolute waste of two very valuable resources.' Hojo then thought to himself with true regret. In his mind, he had destroyed two very valuable recourses of his due to some poor planning on his part. A truly unforgivable sin on his part in his mind.

"Sigh, they are both failures." Hojo suddenly and dramatically exclaimed aloud. "Take them both to the storage room and don't let me see them again." Hojo ordered one of his subordinates. The man immediately nodded in reply and then he did as he was instructed.

The Shin-Ra Mansion: Nibelheim: about one and a half years ago

Zack Fair smiled a feral smile. Today, today he would be free. He had finally awoken from his drug induced slumber about a week ago, but yet his captors, whom were also his former employers, had yet to realize this very important fact. He had since studied the lay out of the room, plus he had clocked the time table, one that stupidly had never changed, of his captors' daily routine, and he had also very carefully observed his immediate, visible surroundings.

For instance, he knew from a newspaper that a scientist had left on a table in the room, that he had been a prisoner where ever he now was for over three and a half years. But yet he felt no debilitations from not being free or even being able to move for that long. He surmised that it must be from the fact that he was literally encased in liquid Mako.

Cloud on the other hand…, well she seemed to be a little out of it, to put it mildly. Very mildly that is. She seemed to lapse in and out of consciousness, which was something that worried him greatly. Maybe she had been experimented on? They did seem to be in a lab. No matter, he'd get both of them out of here. There was no way that he'd let these Shin-Ra bastards hold him and his precious student prisoner here any longer.

And then finally it was time for their daily feeding. And they needed to open the tube which contained each of them to deposit the food into each of their food dispensers. It was a fatal flaw in their prison's design as the man who was sent to feed them had suddenly discovered for himself when Zack grabbed him by the throat and then he had quickly snapped his neck.

Zack was out in an instant, and he immediately got Cloud out of her tube as well and he had then laid her out on the table. After quickly checking the hall to see in anyone had noticed anything, he then went to their equipment lockers.

"So nice of them to save our things." Zack muttered with some dark humor evident in his voice as he dressed and put on his Shinra Alpha and then grabbing his beloved Buster Sword. Then he looked for Cloud's clothes, but he then found out that they were all still a torn and bloody mess. And it was with some very old blood at that. After grimacing with no small amount of disgust, he quickly looked inside the next locker, and he then had found a godsend inside it. Inside of it was a complete SOLDIER uniform. But it was one of an older make though. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, and not to mention that the stuff looked like it had been here for even longer then they had, he immediately put the old fashioned uniform on Cloud, along with an old Shinra Beta wrist armor. And then he grabbed the weapon that was in the locker and whistled.

It was a very old Breaker Sword, and it was one that was in almost shop new shape as well. This was the sword that the Buster Sword had been modeled after. It was slightly smaller then the Buster Sword, and where the Buster Sword was all hard, sharp, flat edges, the Breaker Sword was all smooth, sleek curves. And to top it all off, instead of its Materia slots being empty like the Shinra Beta's were. All four of its single slots were filled with green Materia, Restore, Fire, Ice and Lightning. All of the Materia were almost totally immature it seemed, but that was just fine by him.

"Cloud will love this thing when she wakes up." Zack whispered as he attached the Breaker Sword to her back, and then picking her up into a firemen's carry, he hefted his Buster Sword one in one hand and smiled. "It's time for us to take our leave."

On the outskirts of Midgr: about six months ago

"Ok, this is no longer any fun." Zack pissilly muttered out as he had just run out of running room for Cloud and himself. Oh sure, compared to him, or any other decent member of SOLDIER, even a third class one, the guys that were chasing after him were a total joke. But by their sheer numbers, he knew that he was fucked. So he had been fighting a retreating battle, and now he was out of room to retreat, for there was a giant cliff standing in his path. Hiding Cloud among some rocks to protect her from the coming battle, for she had chosen a little while ago to lapse into unconscious yet again, he readied his Buster Sword and waited for his opponents.

And they did not disappoint him in the slightest with their opening tactics. Under the cover of gun fire, which he had blocked with his very large sword, a group of grunts closed in with electrified batons, ready to smite him.

Smiling, for now the gunners could not fire upon him without hitting their own allies, or so he had thought, he sliced the first three men to come at him with a horizontal left swing while saying "Well today IS a good day to die, don't you agree?" And then, as he readied himself for a backhand swing, a single shot rang out from high within the trees, missing his heart, but getting him good and deep in his left lung.

Coughing up a mouth full of blood, he said "Heh, a sniper. Good job, but I'm still taking all of you with me!" and then, as if he was possessed by a berserker God of War, Zack was slicing up the baton wielders left, right and center.

As the last man left near him fell, Zack, due to his massive blood loss and fatigue, faltered, giving enough time for the sniper to unload four more shots into Zack's chest.

After Zack fell, the two grunts with guns whom had hung back during the fighting then came forward and shot him point blank in the chest a few times for good measure, and then one of them asked the other

"Hey, wasn't there supposed to be a second one with this guy?"

"Yeah, there was. But I heard that one is totally out of it. Mako poisoning or something like that. I doubt that that one has long to live at all. He must have dropped her off somewhere or she died or something. Anyway, it's not our problem anymore." The second one said in reply.

"True." Was the first one's response as he shrugged and then they left the bloody scene.

In Cloud's mindscape: about five years ago

Cloud could barely recall anything that had happened to her since her fight with Sephiroth. She remembered being picked up by some Shin-Ra grunts, and she could remember then being put into a tank of pure liquid Mako, and then the last thing she could remember was her apparently being prepped for surgery. And now this. She was alone, in a void of pure blackness, and she felt so cold and tired.

As she looked around herself, she saw something, a pin-prick of white, way off in the distance. With nothing else to do, Cloud headed towards it.

In Cloud's mindscape: about three years ago

Cloud was so tired. She did not know what was going on any more. She did not know anything any more, all she knew was she needed to make it to that white light. As she looked up, she was utterly surprised to see that she had made it.

The white light that was illuminating her dark universe was a giant glowing crystal. The crystal was totally clear, and inside of it she could see a woman with long dark hair in purple armor with a halberd in her right hand.

Cloud immediately knew that this woman, whomever she was, held the answers to where she was, and what had happened to her. She also knew that she had to get her out of the crystal to be able to ask her any questions. Looking back and forth from the crystal to her bare hands, she spoke aloud in a raspy voice for the first time in a long while, "This will take a while."

In Cloud's mindscape: about two years ago

Cloud's hands were a bloody mess as she struggled to remove the last few centimeters of crystal between her and the woman whom was trapped inside the crystal. And then she had done it. She had reached the woman. And as her bloody hand touched the trapped woman's breast, Cloud's vision was suddenly filled with white and her body was overflowed with pain as she screamed and then passed out.

In Cloud's mindscape: about two years ago: an undetermined amount of time later

Cloud awoke to a woman shouting "WAKE UP DAMN IT!!!" into her left ear.

"Ow, ow, ow… my ear!" Cloud mumbled as she awoke. Looking up at the dark haired woman in purple armor, Cloud asked "Who are you? Where are we? And why is my memory like Swiss Cheese? I mean I can hardly even remember my own name at the moment."

The strange woman sighed and replied with "My name is Hrist. We are in what is currently left of your mind. And as to your stated memory problems, I would guess that they came from when I was put into here."

"What do you mean by 'Put into here'?" Cloud suspiciously asked.

"Well…, um…, the last thing I remember was being ambushed by that wicked, crazy, wizard Lezard." Hrist started and then she paused for a moment, causing Cloud to ask

"Um why'd you stop? Why'd that guy want to ambush you, and why'd he put you in here with me?"

"I was trying to think on how to say this. Well for one, he didn't put me in here with you." Hrist started when Cloud asked

"Huh? Then who did?"

"That I do not know." Hrist stated, and then she told Cloud "Whomever did so is only known to us in this sea of chaos that you call your memories." She said while waving her hands out to the darkness now that surrounded them. "I was killed and my essence was trapped in a soul stone. But I do know for a fact that Lezard never got to do anything with it, for both of my sisters had showed up as I was being put into the stone. The last thing that my spirit saw before I was totally trapped inside the soul stone was my sister Lenneth striking Lezard through his heart with her sword."

"Um, so why did he do that to you?" Cloud curiously asked.

"There's no real good way to explain this. I was a Valkyrie." Hrist told Cloud.

"Um, what's that?" Cloud asked with the utmost seriousness.

Hrist stared at the young woman in front of her like she had grown a second or possibly more heads, and then she asked "You do not know what a Valkyrie is?"

"Nope, never heard of them." Cloud stated.

Hrist just stared wide eyed at the young blond woman sitting on the ground before her and then she muttered "How long, just how long have I been trapped inside that rock, that the world has forgotten all about us?" Then shaking her head, she told Cloud "A Valkyrie is, was a Goddess. We were, the recruiters, I guess you could say for the army of the Gods. We were called 'The Chooser of the Slain' for those that we found worthy, we then took into our own essence until we released them in Asgard, the Realm of the Gods."

"Um, ok, but that doesn't really explain why that guy killed you and then trapped your soul." Cloud interrupted.

"That fool was obsessed with becoming a God. He thought if he could trap my soul and then thoroughly examine it, that he could then find the key he needed to become a Deity himself." Hrist stated. "The man was a true fool, but he also was a powerful one."

"Um, ok. Then how did you end up here? You said this is my mind, right? Then why am I trapped here as well?" Cloud asked of Hrist.

"That I do not know. All I know is that our answers lay out there." Hrist said, sweeping her hands out at the vast field darkness around them.

"Ok." Cloud said while being a little weirded out by all of this.

"So are you ready to go out and find out the answers to your questions?" Hrist asked, offering Cloud her hand.

Cloud took Hrist's hand and said as she helped her up while saying "I guess."

In Cloud's mindscape: about a year and a half a ago

Hrist was not at all pleased with the picture that Cloud's fragmented memories had showed her. And even less pleasing was the fact that she had recently and accidentally discovered on her own.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN I'M ABSORBING YOU?" Cloud had shrieked at Hrist after being told that.

"Just what I said." Hrist dryly replied as she shook the ringing out of her ears. "What ever has been done to us, it is slowly turning you into what I used to be."

"Well what will happen to us then?" Cloud nervously asked.

"I truly do not know." Hrist said while looking down and shaking her head. "I truly just do not know."

"So, um, what do we do about it?" Cloud then asked of Hrist.

"I start training you." Hrist said with a smile. An evil smile. One that Cloud could remember seeing on someone else whenever they had a new thing to teach her, and it was a very painful thing for her to learn.

Gulping, Cloud then asked "Um, so when do we start?"

"Now." Hrist said evenly.

Sighing, Cloud huffed out "I thought so."

EAN: Ok, in the next chapter Cloud finally gets out of her damn head, and we find out just what truly happens to Zack. I bet you guys can guess what happens to him though. And the next chapter will cover until the start of the game, I think. Oh and Yashodoa, what did you think of it? Hopefully you liked it.


	2. RISE MY EINHERJAR

AN1: Ok, to those of you whom are unfamiliar with the subject that is Valkyrie Profile, it is a video game series originally made by Enix, and now owned and created by Square Enix, or as I and some others like to call them, Sqeenix. The first Valkyrie Profile was a Playstation One game, and it had only had a little over eighty thousand copies of it released in North America. It now goes for about one hundred and fifty dollars on E-Bay. It has since been re-released as a PSP game named Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth. And it is much more affordable on that system at forty dollars. Less if bought used. Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria was semi-recently released on the Playstation Two, and it is both a prequel and a sequel at the same time to the first game. Don't even ask. Just accept it. Both games stared different Valkyries, that being Lenneth and Silmeria respectively. There are only three Valkyries in this game world, with the third being Hrist, whom has yet to star in her own game, but I hear that that might be coming soon to the Playstation Three in a few years time. Any more information you would like on this subject could be found by doing a general web search for 'Valkyrie Profile'.

AN2: As to why it's taken so long for this chapter, I've been sick. Very, very sick, and I have also been mainly writing my Ranma stuff while I've been so sick. I'm still sick, but I thought it was high past time I get another chapter of this out.

AN3: Happy ten year American Anniversary to Final Fantasy Seven! This October marks ten years since its debut in America!

AN4: Version 3.0, mainly due to some comments by City of Dis and my trying to get a little more in character with a few of my characters, like Barret in chapter three.

FINAL FANTASY PROFILE

CHAPTER TWO

RISE MY EINHERJAR

In Cloud's mindscape: about six months ago

Cloud had been right. Hrist had been an absolute slave driver while teaching her about the basic powers and abilities of a Valkyrie, while mainly focusing on the power to capture worthy souls and summon them as Einherjar. She had also learned a few other neat tricks as well, such as photon manipulation and some other such things.

"Ok, time to stop Cloud." Hrist suddenly told an exhausted Cloud. "You've got the basic theory all down pat, and you won't be getting any better until you manage to get some real life experience."

Cloud slowly regained her metaphysical breath and then she softly told Hrist "Sorry, but I don't think I want any real experience in doing this."

"I think I can understand that Cloud. I…." Hrist paused for a moment and then cocked her head to the side and asked "Do you feel that? That is one of the most worthy souls I have felt in long time, and it is dying very near us." Hrist whispered in some slight awe at the power of the soul that was currently dying.

"Worthy Hell! That's Zack! I've got to save him!" Cloud cried out as she stood up.

"Wait! It is already too late to…" Hrist cried out as Cloud summoned together all of her willpower to be able to wake herself up and out of her years long coma. Cloud ignored Hrist as the world of Cloud's mind started to tremble and shake in and with her struggle.

On the outskirts of Midgr: about six months ago: seconds later

Cloud groaned from her hiding place among the rocks as she slowly stood up. Fortunately for her she immediately noticed the new weapon on her back. Unfortunately for her though, her groan had somehow alerted the Shin-Ra grunts that were almost gone.

"Hey!!! It's the other target! I thought she was dead!" One of the grunts cried out.

"I thought so too! Well then, let's just make her dead!" Another grunt cried out as they then started to fire their guns at her. Cloud then quickly ducked back behind the outcropping of rocks and swore. She could feel that Zack was slowly slipping away, and she needed to get to him fast. She wasn't about to let Zack go with out a fight, he was her best, hell, he was her only friend, and she didn't think she could stand it if he died. She needed to get to him and get to him now, but she also needed these bozos with the guns gone so that she could do that. Sure, she could easily take them all out, but, by the time she finished with them, Zack would have died due to his injuries. What she needed was a distraction, or, or someone else here to help her out.

"That's it." Cloud whispered. "I need a second person to help me. But there's no else here who can do that, other than… other than Hrist. But can I even do that. Well, she's inside of me, just like she said an Einherjar would be, so, maybe I can summon her out here just like she was one, if she's similar enough to one for me to even do so." Cloud gritted her teeth and the said "I've got no choice, this WILL work." And then Cloud started to summon Hrist.

It was just like all of the practices Hrist had made Cloud do over and over, but yet at the same time it was nothing like it. Cloud thought she was going to pass out or explode, until suddenly she felt the great relief of release and suddenly Hrist was sitting right next to Cloud behind the rocky outcropping Cloud was hiding behind while looking utterly flabbergasted.

"What the, how…, you summoned me! You summoned me just like I was an Einherjar! HOW!?!" Hrist then shouted out at Cloud in her true and utter shock.

"We can discuss that later. Right now I need you to take care of those assholes with the guns that are shooting at us while I see to Zack." Cloud told Hrist.

Hrist narrowed her eyes as she now could feel the impact of the bullets hitting the rocks at her back and said "Fine. We will discus this later. There are more important matters to see to right now. Besides," Hrist said with a truly savage smile "I haven't had a decent fight in ages." She said as she suddenly stood up and summoned her Halberd to her waiting hand.

"Where'd the hell she come from?" One grunt asked of another.

"Who cares? Just waste her as well." Another grunt replied.

Hrist just manically and broadly grinned while she charged at the group of gunmen.

While Hrist had them distracted, Cloud quickly had run over to see Zack. And what she found when she had gotten there had shocked and scared her silly. He was almost gone. The low level Cure Materia she had on her sword would not even begin to help Zack recover. Hell, Cloud was pretty sure that Zack was now even beyond a Revive Materia's ability to help. He was going to die, and within the next minute or two by the looks of things.

Hrist by this time had finished up with the Shin-Ra grunts and had come over to see Cloud. She found Cloud staring at Zack's unconscious and dieing form in tears.

"He's going to die. He's going to die and I can't save him!" Cloud muttered aloud.

Hrist sighed and told Cloud "No, no you cannot save him. You can however keep him with you." Hrist softly told Cloud.

"You mean?" Cloud asked while looking back and forth between Hrist and Zack.

"Yes, you can make him into your Einherjar. He is extremely worthy of such a thing." Hrist said with a strange and predatory look at Zack's shuddering form. "But you must deicide now. He will not live another minute if that."

Cloud's gaze snapped from Hrist to Zack's dieing form, and then it hardened. "Please forgive me Zack, but I can't lose my only friend just yet." She whispered as she started the ritual to make Zack hers for all of time. And then in a bright flash of light, Zack's body was gone, as was Hrist's form, and Cloud was kneeling all alone on the rocky cliff. She stared out into the distance with unseeing eyes until she suddenly grabbed her head and screamed in agony as she then passed out.

In Cloud's mindscape: about six months ago: an undetermined amount of time later

"Ugh." Cloud muttered as she griped her head in pain and awoke. Opening her eyes and seeing a kneeling Hrist hovering over her and an unconscious Zack lying next to her, she realized she must be back in her head again.

"Ugh, why'd that hurt so much?" Cloud groaned out through her pain.

"Hmm, honestly I don't know." Hrist told Cloud. "Maybe you should avoid doing that again until we can find out." Turning to Zack, Hrist said "I also do not know why this friend of yours, Zack did you say his name was, is still unconscious, or even why he ever was in the first place. He should have been just fine as soon as you got him in here."

Cloud was now worried. "Something went wrong, am I right?" She asked.

"Yes, but I'll be damned if I can figure out just what it was." Hrist sighed. Then she looked at Cloud and said "Look, you better wake up incase those weaklings that I took care of have any friends. I'll let you know the moment that he awakes, if he doesn't that is." Hrist said chuckle.

Cloud looked crestfallen, but she saw the wisdom in doing such a thing and replied with "Sure." And then she concentrated on waking up yet again.

On the outskirts of Midgr: about six months ago: seconds later

Cloud awoke to the feeling of rain hitting her on her face as she lay upon her back on the rocky cliff. Sitting up very quietly and very slowly, for she had learned her lessen from the last time she woken up around here, she quickly looked around. Seeing that she was alone, for now that is, she quickly stood up and looked around. "Is, is that Midgar?" Cloud asked looking off into the distance over the cliff's shear edge. "Yeah, it is. I guess I'd better go there." Cloud then looked around and then she asked "But first, how the hell do I get off this damn cliff?"

EAN: A bit short, but if I didn't put this out now, I doubt I'd ever get this chapter out. Sorry for taking so long on this one, but when you work on as many stories at once as I do, you can get side tracked and forget about a few. Besides, I'm still not feeling all that well right now, and I have also just started running a new Hero System game for a group of my friends. Well see you again soon, and hopefully this time it will take way less time then this time did. Thanks for reading this, bye for now.


	3. MEETING OLD FRIENDS AND NEW ACQUAINTANCE

AN1: Sorry about taking so damn long on this chapter. I have one major excuse. Crisis Core. That, that piece of awesome really shook up the ideas I had for this fic. And while Crisis Core, Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus and all and any other pieces of the Final Fantasy VII universe are not and will not be valid in this fic, the game DID manage to shake up what I had wanted to do with and in this fic. So, I then managed to get one of the world's worst case of writer's block ever on this story, and add into that my recurring illness, my busy schedule, my life deciding that now is a good time to fall apart and go to hell, and various other things, well, I haven't worked on this in quite the while.

AN2: I've reworked the last two chapters. Just spelling and grammar stuff mostly, for while I'm changing the direction I will be going in this fic, the small amount of past work I've done on this is and was just fine, story wise. Spelling and grammar wise, it needed a slight amount of overhaul.

AN3: Ok, I've been saying that I'm changing my plans on where I was going in this fic, and I meant it. So, I'm no longer sure that it will be the Female Cloud and Zack pairing I promised, for now my plans do not quite run that way, and, well, I think I'm going to go a hell of a lot more AU then I was going to go in the first place, because, well just because. Now, I also said before that only the main game of Final Fantasy VII will be used as a point of reference in this fic, all other pieces of the Final Fantasy VII universe will be considered as not existing for the purposes of this fic, but what about Valkyrie Profile? Well, Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth is the main universe in that series. Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria was and is a time-traveling offshoot of the main time line, and thus it was and is a new and separate timeline, and in this fic, I'm using the premise behind Silmeria to make my own time line/Alternate Universe for Valkyrie Profile for the purposes of this story. So yes, I'm going extremely AU in regards to Valkyrie Profile, and as for the Final Fantasy VII portion of this fic, well, you'll soon see how AU I will be going with that as well.

AN4: Version 3.0, mainly due to some comments by City of Dis and my trying to get a little more in character with a few of my characters, like Barret in chapter three.

FINAL FANTASY PROFILE

CHAPTER THREE

MEETING OLD FRIENDS AND NEW ACQUAINTANCES

Outside Midgar: at the entrance to Midgar: about six months ago

Cloud had been slightly relived by the time that she had reached Midgar, for Zack had awoken. Unfortunately for them all, he had been quite confused when he had awoken, to put it very mildly. Hey, finding out that you are dead and stuck inside the soul of your best friend and student can do that to you. After much verbal, um, venting, by Zack, he was then told by Hrist just what he could look forward to as an Einherjar to a, well, independent Valkyrie, for the lack of a better term. Finding out that his soul was pretty much in servitude to Cloud for the rest of his eternity was, at first a major blow to him, but the news that she could summon him out of herself for as long as she could stand the mental strain, something that would get less and less with practice as well, mollified that a bit. And even more pacifying to him was the fact that Hrist could and did teach Cloud in her mind, and if she could, so could he, and, well, let us just say that harsh training can very therapeutic. And besides, Zack was confident that living in this sort of afterlife was much to be much preferred by him then rejoining the life stream, because hey, one, he still wanted revenge on both Hojo individually and Shinra as a group for what they did to him, and two, he liked to fight, and you really can't do that in the life stream, now can you?

So, after Zack had been pacified, all was well in Cloud mind and soul, well except for the fact that Cloud now had two rather harsh and sadistic trainers teaming up in her soul, now plotting and planning to unleash a special brand of holy training hell upon her, but she's live through all of that… well, probably. But all of that could be put on hold, for "How the hell can I even get into Midgar anyways?"

Looking around at the main, and just about only, entrance to Midgar, Cloud saw something and smiled. There, in line to enter Midgar, was a very large semi-truck with not only the Shin-Ra logo on it, it had the Science Department's seal on it as well.

"No grunt is going to check that truck." Cloud thought to herself with a small smirk as she prepared for a bit of infiltration.

Midgar: Wall Market: outside of an empty shack: About five months ago

Cloud smirked a small and victorious smile as she looked upon the new building, well shack really, that she had purchased. At Zack's suggestion, she had started to hire herself out as a mercenary, and within a week she had managed to get herself quite the rep. And then two and a half weeks ago, she had gotten a quite lucrative offer for a job guarding a person from an unnamed threat. Cloud didn't really care, well, at first that is, because the money was quite good. And even better was the fact that the man wanted at least two more guards, and so she used her ability to summon both Zack and Hrist, with their fervent approval, for, one, not only were they bored by staying inside of Cloud's mind and soul all of the time, but two, this way, they'd, well really Cloud that is, could truly make a shit load of money.

Unfortunately for them, it seemed that the person targeting their client was a high ranking Shin-Ra employee. Fortunately for them though, it seemed that this was an off the books grudge and that the man was stupid enough to come down to the slums with his hirelings to see things through personally. When all was said and done, and with the Shin-Ra employee with the grudge, and the money, now dead, the threat to their client was no more, thus causing the grateful man to give them a nice bonus on top of their already nice pay, letting Cloud do this, open up her own, small though it is, shop in Wall Mart. Her product? Her, plus Zack and Hrist's of course, services for just about anything.

Midgar: Wall Market: outside of a shack: about one month ago

"Ya sure this is da place?" A large black man with a gun for a right hand and most of his lower forearm asked of the much smaller and extremely attractive woman standing next to him.

"Well, all the information that I've managed to get says that it is Barret." The woman replied with a slightly offended tone to her voice.

The large man named Barret, somehow sensing that he had somehow manage to offend his companion yet again, sighed and said "Sorry Tifa, it's just that this don't look like no office for the latest and greatest Merc for hire in Midgar, ya know?"

"Appearances can be deceiving, you know? Why do you think nobody's found us yet?" Tifa asked of Barret with a small lopsided smirk.

"True, too true. Well, let's meet this Merc, and see if she'll even let us hire her, and what she'll charge if she does." Barret said in a deep voice laced with regret, and some other, unidentifiable, emotions, while he started to enter the shack.

"Well, I was wondering just when you two would decide to enter." A woman said with a chuckle as she stood up and walked around a desk set at the back of the front room of the shack. She was physically, well, very un-imposing, would be a good way to describe it. While she looked very physically fit, she was short. Really short. As in she was five foot nothing short. Hell, the sword that was casually leaning against her desk was almost as big as she was. The blade it's self was only three feet long, but if you added in the six inch long guard and hilt and then the foot long handle and pommel of the sword, it easily came was only six inches shorter than she was standing up. Plus it was wide, very wide, the blade it's self was a few inches over a foot wide, and the guard was about a foot and a half wide. There looked to be no way that she could ever wield that thing.

Chuckling to herself, for she knew exactly just what must be going through her two potential customers' minds, she then gasped as she recognized one of them. "Tifa?" Cloud asked with surprise, wonder and joy evident in her voice. "I, I thought that you were dead!"

"Cloud!?!" Tifa shrieked out in reply. "Where have you been? I thought that you had died as well."

Cloud looked down and grimaced and then replied in a whisper "At times I almost wish I had." Then looking up with a small, lopsided, smile she exclaimed "But, I'm all better now!" She chirped. "So, um, what you do you need with a mercenary Tifa? You guys in some sort of trouble?"

Barret quickly got over his shock at the mercenary woman's small size. Hell Tifa was only a little taller than her and she could kick just about everyone else's ass in AVALANCHE, so he knew that size doesn't really matter in some cases, and besides, she had those freaky Mako eyes, and then after he got over his shock that this woman knew Tifa somehow, he said to her "We've heard that you don't mind jobs that put you up against Shin-Ra. Well, we just might have such a job, but we'll need to talk about it elsewhere. Meet us here at this time if you want to know more." He said while handing Cloud a slip of paper and then leaving with Tifa.

Cloud narrowed her eyes at the now shut door and then she read the slip of paper.

_Sector Seven, the Seventh Heaven bar, seven tonight. _Was all that it said.

Wading up the paper and throwing it in the room's furnace, she thought with silted eyes 'I think that this is going to be the start of something big.'

'Yes.' Came from Zack, while

"I quite agree.' Was Hrist's reply.

Midgar: sector seven: outside of the Seventh Heaven bar: about one month ago at about a little before seven at night

Cloud walked into the seventh heaven bar with her sword resting comfortably on her back, ready for a quick draw, and scanned the room for threats. Seeing none, well, none to or for her at the least, she slowly walked over towards bar she saw Tifa standing behind and sat down.

"Want a drink?" Tifa asked of her. She really didn't, but then why else would she have come to a bar? Nodding slowly, Tifa asked "So, what's you're pleasure?"

"Surprise me." Cloud slowly replied.

Tifa smirked and said "Sure." with a small grin. And then she was mixing up a small storm with all of her alcoholic drinks, and then she put the dubious looking concoction in front of Cloud on a napkin with a smirk "That there is the pride of the bar, 'Straight to Heaven'. Because that's right where it'll send you." Turning around, Tifa went over to another new costumer, and Cloud then picked up her drink, while noticing a note on the napkin '_Stay after closing.' _Noticing that this was both a different and neater writer then her last note writer, she took a sip of her drink, and she was then pleasantly surprised at the taste.

'Hey, you're going to have to summon me out some time for a taste of that!' Cloud heard Zack cry out in her head. 'If just the shadows of it taste that good, I need to experience the real thing!'

'Zack, you are incorrigible.' Hrist drawled out. "I mean really, being summoned out for the sole purpose of getting drunk? Really now.'

'Hey…' Zack started when Cloud interrupted them with

'Will you two please be quiet? I need to be aware of my surroundings right now I'd think.'

'Sorry.' Zack muttered while Hrist replied with

'I apologize.'

Cloud then took small sips from the cocktail she had in her hands while looking around herself in an unobtrusive manner. Five hours, and two more drinks and a small meal latter, and the bar was finally closed and she was now all alone with Tifa. "Follow me." Was all Tifa said while heading for one of the bar's gaming machines.

Midgar: sector seven: underneath the Seventh Heaven bar: about a month ago at midnight

Cloud was, mildly impressed by the obvious base that was underneath the bar and asked of the large black man with the gunarm with a large smirk visible on her face. "So, just who do I have the pleasure of speaking to, and just whom are you representing?"

"The name's Barret, and I'm da leader of a group named AVALANCHE. Maybe ya've heard of us?" The large man now known to Cloud as Barret evenly replied.

"Yes, I've heard about you. Not nice things either, but then again I'm not in the 'NICE' business, now am I?" Cloud replied with a chuckle. "Now what I do you is that you are all known terrorists, and if word gets out I'm helping out you guys, well, that will just about kill all of my other business, and wind up making you my only customers."

Tifa then interjected with a shout of "After what Shin-Ra did to Nibelheim you're not going to do anything?"

Cloud looked at Tifa with a cold stare and slowly replied with "You have no idea what happened to me during and after that. Shin-Ra will pay with a bloody retribution for what happened there. But, if it becomes known that I am actively on your pay roll, I will lose most of, if not all of my other customers, thus not only putting me into the poor house, and closing off all of my lines of information, but it will lead to Shin-Ra knowing about my existence. They think that I am dead at this moment, and that is to my supreme advantage at this point. Now, I am not saying that I will not help your group Barret," Cloud said while switching to whom she was addressing "But the cost of such help will be extremely high for you and it will have to be very worth my time."

Barret grinned a smug grin and said "Well, we plan ta blow up all da Mako Reactors in Midgar one by fucking one."

Cloud then smiled a feral smile and replied with "Do tell."

EAN1: ARGH!!! Too damn short, but then this chapter has broken my writers block, and I want the planning and the 'Assault on Mako Reactor One!' in the next chapter, so, oh well. Hopefully the next chapter will be bigger, and soon. Thanks for reading this, bye for now.

EAN2: If anyone is too out of character, then I just say, AU people.

EAN3: Thank you to GunnerRyu for looking over this and the two previous chapters for me. He didn't really beta them, more like he just told me that I wasn't crackers when I wrote this thing, which I felt that I might have been.

EAN4: Well, Barret was TOO, not out of character, but out of dialogue, so I tried to fix it. I also changed to size of Cloud's Breaker Sword, because City of Dis, pointed out to me that it was too big, for I stated earlier that is was slightly SMALLER than the Buster Sword, and I made it slightly BIGGER than the Buster Sword. Um, opps? Is all I've got to say about that.


	4. THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM

Final Fantasy Profile

Chapter Four

THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM

Midgar: sector seven: underneath the Seventh Heaven bar: about a month ago at about five in the morning.

After a brief, a very brief and a very sketchy, overview of their plans, and then a very intense haggling session, they had then finally gotten down to the serious business of starting to plan out just how to blow up a Shin-Ra controlled Mako Reactor. It soon came to light that they needed more, hands on info.

Cloud sighed and pushed herself back from the blueprints to Mako Reactor One. "Sigh, I don't even want to know how you got all this information, but, honestly, we need more hands on info if we want to succeed. You guys need to get a plant in the reactor, or at the least get some more info on the security inside the reactor."

Barret ran his left hand through his short crop of hair and sighed heavily. "Arrrgh!!!" He growled. "Ok, ok, you're right!" He growled out. "Ugh. Look, just go home, and I'll contact you when I do have more info and a more solid plan, ok? And here." He said, tossing her a small bag. "That's two hundred and fifty Gil, as a retainer for when we need you. Tifa, take her up." And with that, Barret turned to the third woman of the group and said "Jessie, I need you to do some of your magic for me…" While Tifa took Cloud up the elevator.

After they got upstairs, Tifa asked Cloud, "Cloud, do you think you can come by some times before Barret's ready, just to talk and stuff. It'd be nice to talk to someone from home and stuff." Tifa asked with a shy smile.

Cloud looked at Tifa and then replied with "I guess. It would be nice to know what happened to you, and what you know of what happened that night."

Tifa looked pained and then she said "Yeah, same with you."

And with that, Cloud left into the early morning rush.

Midgar: sector seven: underneath the Seventh Heaven bar: about two weeks ago at about two in the afternoon

Cloud had finally had some free time and she had come to see Tifa as she had promised. After talking about their childhood home and their child hood it's self, they drifted off into what they really wanted to talk about, what really had happened to them on and after that fateful night.

Tifa told Cloud how she had been saved by her mentor Zangan and brought to Midgar as she was very hurt and needed medical care beyond what Zangan could offer her. And then when she finally did get better, she opened this bar and then latter joined AVALANCHE as a way to get back at Shin-Ra.

And then Cloud told her story.

"So you were in a coma for five years, experimented on, and when you finally did wake you, it was to see that Zack guy dying? We're you very close?" Tifa asked after summarizing what she had heard.

"He was my best friend and my mentor. He kept sticking his neck out for me and kept trying to get me into SOLDIER, but obviously that never happened. He was a great guy, and I miss him a lot." Cloud evenly replied.

"Yeah, he seemed like a pretty nice guy when I met him too. Not at all lick I thought a SOLDIER would act." Tifa said, and then looking embarrassed, she told Cloud, "Sorry."

"No need to apologize" Cloud told Tifa "Zack was, very unique. He deserved better then…" Cloud grew silent and then raised her glass "To those we have lost, may they and we find peace with it."

Tifa nodded and raised her own glass in response.

Midgar: sector seven: underneath the Seventh Heaven bar: three days ago

"You sure about this?" Cloud asked of Barret.

"Sure I'm sure!" Barret growled out. "Look, Jessie got herself patched into all da security cams, and every night at seven, a train arrives at da station carrying a new batch of guards. So we hop onto da train's roof, take out the guards as they exit, take out the guards coming off shift, and since it's shift change, well we can just slip in through the lighter security and set the bomb and then blow that peace of garbage straight ta Hell!" Barret ended in a shout.

Cloud was paying some attention to what Barret was saying, but she was more focused on her inner talk with Zack. "So, Zack, what do you think of the plan?"

"Eh, well it COULD work, but only if the Shin-Ra grunts guarding the place are absolute morons, so, yeah, I think it will work." Zack told Cloud. Zack had been most decidedly NOT impressed with most of the Shin-Ra troops that they had come in contact with since returning to Midgar. He had felt that there had been quite the let down in quality since he last was active. And Cloud had fully agreed with him.

"Ok, so when will we do it?"

"In three days." Was Barret's reply.

"Why then?" Was Cloud's off hand question, as she was studding the security videos.

"Because a couple of guards have asked for and gotten some vacation time during that shift, and no one's replacing them." Jessie replied with a smirk.

Cloud just stared and blinked dumbly at Jessie and slowly said, "Wow, that's…"

"Really, really stupid of them? I know. But so very Shin-Ra." Jessie replied with a smirk.

"Yeah, it is. So I guess I'll see you in three days."

"Yeah. We'll meet at the point in three days at five forty five. Be there." Barret growled out.

AN1: Ugh, shortest chapter ever, hardly worth posting as a separate chapter, but, I really want to start the real story in the next chapter, and we finally will get to present day.

AN2: That conversation between Cloud and Tifa has been kicking my ass for months, and I'm still not totally satisfied with it, but this has to be released so I can finally move on to the meat of this story. Sheesh.

AN3: If you want to see how shitty my life is at the moment and why it's taken so long for me to post, read my author's profile page.


End file.
